ownership
New Zealand's commercial grower count has fallen from 7,000 to 4,300 in 20 years, and its produce wholesalers may drop from three to two. Inside the Commerce Commission's Statement of Issues on the J&P Turner and T&G Fresh merger, and what it means for growers.
Bananas
A sign in an organic shop said imported fruit is often fumigated. I went and read the rules. Bananas have their own line in the treatment schedule, and the chemical is hydrogen cyanide. How often it is used, nobody will say.
Health
Health is the reason most people give for buying organic. I went looking for what's actually been measured, across long-running population studies, systematic reviews and one real randomised trial, and laid it out with the caveats attached. Not a verdict. Just the evidence, honestly weighed.
August ran on grain: a malthouse closing, a bread process from 1961, a mark worth four cents a loaf, and Bürgen off the shelves inside a week. Plus what a cow is given in its lifetime, why mince costs what it does, and two people in Riverton with 400 apple varieties.
Fair question. Before you trust anything I write about food, you should know who's writing it. Twenty years of brewing, blind hop selection in the Yakima Valley, judging at the World Beer Cup, and a lifetime of asking where things come from. Here's my answer.
Why do people choose organic food? Sprays, GM feed, soil biology, animal welfare, and the trust underneath it all. An honest run through every reason people pay more, including the weak ones that don't survive the evidence, and what the premium over free range actually buys you in New Zealand.
A curated map of 128 places across New Zealand where you can buy food you can actually trust — organic shops, farmers' markets, growers, refilleries, and suppliers worth knowing about. Not crowdsourced. Hand-checked.
Macro looks like a single organic brand. It's actually an umbrella covering certified-organic, free-range, "wholefoods," and "no artificial" products — only some of which are organic. Here's how to read the difference at the shelf.
New Zealand produces over a billion eggs a year. Fewer than 20 farms produce every certified-organic egg among them. This is a map of what actually exists — and how to find the eggs that match what you're looking for.
A new piece most days. Daily investigations into where NZ's food really comes from — sent direct to your inbox.
The seed stand at your garden centre looks like a dozen competing brands. Four of them are contracted through one family business in New Plymouth that imports from eight countries. Here is where the names actually go, and what a packet will never tell you.
A subscriber asked for one email a week instead of one per post. Fair enough. There's now a weekly round-up, and you can pick which you get.
New Zealand's largest certified organic seed supplier says about 10% of its range is grown here. So where does the rest come from, and who is actually growing seed in this country? Six suppliers, and what each will tell you.
Three owners worked this ground south of Oamaru, and one grower stayed through all of them. The last company was wound up this year, and nobody can tell me whether the certification survived.
New Zealand's state farmer just made a record profit. Most people don't know it exists, or that it runs the country's largest organic dairy operation. The reason goes back to a century of land ballots, and ends with cull cows certified for the American market.
There is certified organic beef in New Zealand supermarkets. Most people walk past it, because the brand that sells it also sells five kinds of beef that aren't organic. Here's where to buy it and how to spot it.
August ran on grain: a malthouse closing, a bread process from 1961, a mark worth four cents a loaf, and Bürgen off the shelves inside a week. Plus what a cow is given in its lifetime, why mince costs what it does, and two people in Riverton with 400 apple varieties.
I buy organic chocolate where I can find it, which is how an 85% Alter Eco bar came home from Commonsense this week. Classic Blackout. Deep blue box, cacao trees on the front, a white circle with the brand in it. I turned it over and decided it was Australian.
New Zealand's ninth Organic Wine Week runs 21 to 27 September. Over 70 certified organic wines from 25 producers pour at the Auckland tasting, with more events being added. Here's what's on, what organic certification changes in the vineyard and the winery, and whether it costs you more.
A tube of antibiotic into each quarter of the udder, every cow, every year. Around 80 percent of them had nothing wrong with them. Here's why it happened, and why it's ending.
Robert and Robyn Guyton have grafted and grown hundreds of apple varieties rescued from old Southland orchards. Meanwhile the apples in the shop are licensed assets with royalty streams. Two gene pools, two very different futures.
Nobody is hiding what your beef was given. Nobody is telling you either. I went looking for the record and found a form that only asks about right now.
